Media Coverage

Turkish cement producer Çimsa joins the CSI

12 November 2013

Turkish cement producer Çimsa has become a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Cement Sustainability Initiative (WBCSD CSI). It is the first Turkish company to join. The CSI is in discussions with local trade associations regarding other potential partnerships in the country.

Energy efficiency, sustainability and cement

Phillipe Fonta is the managing director of the Cement Sustainability Initiative, and he was recently in Vancouver promoting cement as an energy-efficient method of construction for current and future projects.

Fonta spoke to the Journal of Commerce about the efforts being made by the cement industry to reduce waste and recycle material, while at the same time producing product that is more energy-efficient than in past.

Fonta also explained that given the inevitability of climate change and the increasing regularity of extreme weather, cement provides the best protection possible against the elements and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

CSI launches Global Water Tool for the cement sector

11 October 2013

The cement sector Global Water Tool (GWT) was launched at the Budapest Water Summit this week, with representatives from CSI member companies Holcim, Italcementi, Lafarge, Titan and Votorantim present to demonstrate the tool to summit participants. The GWT is a free resource, designed to help cement companies manage their water use more efficiently. Although the quantity of water used in cement production is less than in many business sectors, it is vital for operational purposes.

7th International VDZ Congress 2013

The 7th International VDZ Congress 2013, 'Process technology of cement manufacturing,' has successfully taken place in Duesseldorf, Germany, on 25 - 27 September, attracting around 600 delegates of whom around 250 were from outside Germany. The Congress - in English - takes place every four years and is regarded as one of the most prestigious cement technical conferences in the world.

Howard Klee spoke about the Cement Sustainability Initiative and stated that the initiative now has 24 member companies, covering 25% of global cement production, or 55% outside of China. Howard stated that the main objectives of the CSI include improving the cement industry's performance on climate impacts, employee safety, sustainability, water use and biodiversity. Co-processing and waste management are also now covered by the initiative. Four levers have been suggested to manage CO2 emissions from the cement industry, including the promotion of energy efficiency, alternative fuels use, clinker factor reduction and carbon capture and storage. On the safety side, incidents involving moving vehicles, falls from height, and being hit by moving machinery or objects are the main cases of injuries and fatalities in the cement industry, with continuing high fatality levels in the cement industry but even higher levels among contractors on cement plant sites. New action is being taken to address the cement industry's mercury emissions, with best available technology and best environmental approaches being developed. The CSI has also developed global guidelines for alternative fuels use, specifically excluding a variety of materials that local populations would object to, in order to help to retain the 'license to operate.' Action on biodiversity is ongoing in the global cement industry. Howard's organisation is encouraging concrete recycling, aiming towards 'zero landfill.' Howard Klee concluded, "The superior properties of concrete make it a superior construction and infrastructure material, but public perceptions differ from this standpoint."

Sustainability must stand on its own two feet, speaker tells cement leaders at CSI Annual Forum

"Sustainability must stand on its own two feet," declared Solidia Technologies® CEO Tom Schuler during a panel presentation at the annual forum of the WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). CSI invited Schuler to speak on new sustainable technologies and the challenges of introducing innovation and to present Solidia's technology that reduces the carbon footprint of cement and concrete products up to 70 percent.

One of the largest sustainability programs ever undertaken by a single sector, CSI comprises 24 cement producers with operations in more than 100 countries representing 30 percent of the world's cement production. Held this week in Vancouver and co-hosted by HeidelbergCement, Lafarge, and the Cement Association of Canada, the 7th annual forum convened industry leaders, government officials, entrepreneurs and researchers to explore trends in building materials and facilitate adoption of sustainability elements in construction.

Heidelberg, Lafarge host global CSI Forum in Vancouver

Members of CAC and peers from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) are convening October 1-3 in British Columbia to exchange ideas on best production, environmental management and market development practices.

CAC is a partner with CSI in the Vancouver gathering, themed "Sustainable Construction: Building Tomorrow's World" and hosted by the operators of the province's two cement mills, Heidelberg Cement and Lafarge Canada.

Treating waste productively by the cement industry

Co-processing of waste in cement plants is a service that the cement sector can provide to their plant's communities for their mutual benefit. CSI members manage co-processing fuels and raw materials in cement manufacturing in an efficient and responsible way.

In response to the escalating rate of waste production on the one hand and the rising resource demands from the cement manufacturing process on the other hand, cement companies around the world have been considering waste as a source of raw material and energy since the late 70's. The sector is now making a considerable and valuable contribution to the waste management system in many countries step by step. When and where waste material is available and cannot technically or economically be avoided, minimized, reused and / or recycled, cement manufacturing provides a more sustainable solution than landfill or dumping due to the full energy and material recovery in the process.

New data for cement industry shows reductions in CO2 Emission

The cement industry has an important part to play in reducing global carbon emissions and the CSI has been working to help drive this. The 'Getting the Numbers Right' (GNR) database was set up to gather reliable, up-to-date emissions data from the industry. Now in its seventh year, the latest data to be published provides evidence of significant CO2 emissions reductions and improved efficiency across the industry.

The GNR data collected provides evidence that steady progress has been made in the cement industry since 1990, with trends showing consistent yearly reductions in CO2 emissions per tonne of product. The latest data released for 2011 is no exception. According to the 2011 GNR data, the cement industry has reduced its emissions of CO2 per tonne of cementitious product by 17% since 1990, despite experiencing production growth in this time.